I have been fundamentally changed just as Genly Ai has been. Everything about this was so unique and such an immersive experience. Truly to experience a new unfathomable world as an alien to it and also to see those confused eyes looking back as a resident towards our protagonist.. was a journey in itself. Naturally, there are wordier and more descriptive sections of simply traveling if TRAVEL COULD BE SIMPLE IN THIS BOOK 😭😭😭 but I could not find myself to be bored. It was so poetic and this was not gonna lie as much as it was a political scifi drama of sorts… it felt so cozy. But I also cried at the end 🥹 Estraven and Genly Ai are everything to me. The bond they formed overtime were everything. The way Ursula K. Le Guin carved out this snowbound civilization and their differing nation was like nothing else I’ve ever read. The between tidbits of tales were great supplements and felt natural as Genly Ai was there to uncover the archives on the Gethenians’ culture recorded by past travelers. Genly Ai was flawed, but I liked him very much for all his snark and frustration and confusions. I would 100% read again for the rest of my lifetime for sure.